Fastening for boots and shoes



(No Model.) v

H. F. WHIDDEN.

Fastening for Boots and Shoes.

No. 234,698. Pate nted Nov. 23,1880.

d 17 Fig.1. .I'ig. 6

Witness es Inventor NPETERS, PHOTO-LITHOGRAPNEFZ. WASH1NG A'ON D. c.

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HOSEA F. WHIDDEN, OF SOUTH ABINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

FASTENING FOR BOOTS AND SHOES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 234,698, dated November 23, 1880,

Application filed October 15, 1880.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HOSEA F. WHIDDEN, of South Abington,in the State of Massachusetts, haveinvented an Improved Fastening for Boots and Shoes, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to that class of shoenails having heads of an angular shape, but which are intended to be driven into the sole of a boot or shoe until the top of the nail is flush with the surface of the sole; and the invention consists in locating the fin of the nail just above the wed 'ge-shaped or entering portion of the head, which, as in screws, may be termed the cone, and at such a distance below the surface of the head that when the nail is driven into the shoe-sole until the top of its head is flush with the surface of the shoe-sole the fin is buried in the leather, the points or angles of the head being left well defined and sharp.

The invention is especially applicable to shoe nails with diamond heads. As these nails have been manufactured heretofore they had a tin flush with the top of the nail, and which could not be so far removed as to leave a head with the general appearance of a diamond without rounding the angles or corners. But in the ordinary use of my improved nails, if ordinary care has been exercised in their manufacture, it is immaterial whether or not the fin is to any extent removed before the nails are driven into the shoe-sole. This is because the wet leather which is used in bottoming boots and shoes will close over the fin, burying it some distance below the surface of the sole, with which the top of the nail remains flush. The angles of the head are accordingly left clear and well defined. Moreover, the general diameter of the head of the improved nail is a little larger at the location of the fin than at the top, and accordingly an excessively large fin may be reduced by the ordinary tumbling process without injury to the points and angles of the head.

(No model.)

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan, Fig. 2 a side elevation, and Fig. 3 an inverted plan, of a diamond-headed nail embodying my invention.

The shank is marked a, while b is the cone, 0 the fin, and d the beveled portion of the head above the fin, its top surface having the shape of a diamond.

The machine in which the improved nail is manufactured differs from an ordinary nailmachine only in the dies and header. The dies which grasp the blank when it has been severed from the strip or rod and give shape to the shank have their grooves enlarged a little at one end, so that together they form a countersink, in which the cone of the nail is formed. The header has a recess out upon a slight bevel to a diamond form. Accordingly, when the header is brought up against the ends of thejaws to upset the head of the nail, both the recess in the header and the countersink in thejaws are filled, while the fin formed by the superfluous metal spreads out between the header and the end of thejaws.

The bevel in the recess of the header allows the finished nail to clear the head properly, While also increasing the diameter-of the head at the location of the fin, with the advantage mentioned above. The cone of the nail may be slightly modified in shape to correspond with the general form of the head.

I claim-- An improved shoe-nail or fastening having a head provided with the upper beveled portion, (1, the lower cone-shaped portion, 1), and the intermediate fin c, all substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

HOSEA F. WHIDDEN.

Witnesses W. W. SWAN, H. G. OLMsTED. 

